Midsomer Murders (on DVD)

Midsomer Murders
[DVD Midsomer]

This is a contemporary murder mystery series set in fictional Midsomer county in rural England. Based on the original six “Chief Inspector Barnaby” book series by Caroline Graham (a seventh came out in 2004) this series has been regularly pumping out new episodes for British television since 1997.

We follow Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (starring John Nettles) and his Detective Sergeant as they work throughout the villages of Midsomer as we meet your standard British villagers, outlandish characters, landed gentry, and suspects of all demographics. This series provides good mysteries, is character-driven, and we also slowly learn about the private lives of our favorite members of the police force and the medical examiners.

Along the way, the Detective Sergeants are promoted and transferred so over the course of the series we meet a handful of DS staff. Around year 14, DCI Tom Barnaby retires and his younger cousin, DCI John Barnaby (starring Neil Dudgeon) takes his place.

At the rate of murders in Midsomer county, it’s as dangerous to live there as in Cabot Cover, Maine with Jessica Fletcher.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. When I initially began watching, I was overwhelmed with there being so many years to watch. Then all of a sudden I was done and didn’t know what to do with myself.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Prime Suspect (UK), Rosemary & Thyme (UK), Murder, She Wrote (US) or Diagnosis Murder (US).]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this series ] | [ un-official Midsomer Murders fan web site ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!